How AFTD started their logo design journey

Summary

We are a national nonprofit patient advocacy and support organization in need of a new logo before launching a new website and a national awareness and advocacy campaign. Entries will be reviewed by the AFTD Logo Committee at the close of the
contest; a winner will be announced within 7 days!

Company name

Association for Frontotemporal Dementias

What inspires you and how do you envision the design for your business?

AFTD is 6 years old; our mission is to provide support and education for families affected with this rare type of dementia, to educate medical professionals about thsi disease, to spread awareness, to fund research and to advocate for our community. FTD is a particularly cruel type of dementia: it occurs in younger people (average age of diagnosis is in ones 50's) and instead of losing memory the patient loses executive functions: language, emotion, and control over their behavior. Because it is rare, FTD is often misdiagnosed as Alzheimers or a psychiatric condition; many of our families have been on a multi-year journey through various misdiagnoses by the time the find us. See http://www.ftd-picks.org for more information on the disease and services we provide.

AFTD is extending our reach across the US and before we launch our new website (currently under construction) and launch a national awareness campaign we need to "brand" ourselves--and a new logo will be the heart of this process.

Wants

- Color scheme: red, black and white. Can add an accent color, but be aware that sometimes we will not be able to afford full color printing.
- A warm, welcoming feel
- Professional image, so the academic and business communities take us seriously
- A graphic element that we can carry through the website and our publications
- Incorporate our tagline: "Opening the gateway to help and a cure"
- Useful in full color, two-color or BW options
- Easy to read and comprehend. Our name is rather cumbersome.

Don't want

- Nothing cutesy. This is a cruel disease.
- Things we don't like about our current logo: no unifying identity; there are a few different components that have been used in a variety of permutations, so when we use the word "logo" no one is quite sure what we mean...
- Nothing too complex.